BACKGROUND Preplant fumigation with methyl bromide (MeBr) has been used for control of soilborne pests in high-value annual, perennial and nursery crops, but is being phased out. In 2007 and 2008, research trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of surface treatments and two application shanks on pest control with 1,3-dicloropropene (1,3-D) in perennial crop nurseries. RESULTS All 1,3-D...

Soilborne fungal and oomycete pathogens are the causal agents of several important plant diseases. Infection frequently co-occurs with herbivory by root-feeding insects, facilitating tripartite interactions that modify plant performance and mortality. In an agricultural context, interactions between pathogens, herbivores, and plants can have important consequences for yield protection. However,...

Pythium species are important soilborne pathogens occurring in the forest nursery industry of the Pacific Northwest. However, little is known about their genetic diversity or population structure and it is suspected that isolates are moved among forest nurseries on seedling stock and shared field equipment. In order to address these concerns, a total of 115 isolates of three Pythium species (P....

Naturally occurring disease-suppressive soils have been documented in a variety of cropping systems, and in many instances the biological attributes contributing to suppressiveness have been identified. While these studies have often yielded an understanding of operative mechanisms leading to the suppressive state, significant difficulty has been realized in the transfer of this knowledge into ...

In the dryland Pacific Northwest wheat cropping systems, no-till is becoming more prevalent as a way to reduce soil erosion and fuel inputs. Tillage can have a profound effect on microbial communities and soilborne fungal pathogens, such as Rhizoctonia. We compared the fungal communities in long-term no-till (NT) plots adjacent to conventionally tilled (CT) plots, over three years at two locati...

Verticillium wilt, caused by the soilborne fungus, Verticillium alfalfae, is one of the most serious diseases of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) worldwide. To identify loci associated with resistance to Verticillium wilt, a bulk segregant analysis was conducted in susceptible or resistant pools constructed from 13 synthetic alfalfa populations, followed by association mapping in two F1 populations...

Ethical disclosures The genus Rhizoctonia DC (1805) has long been studied as an important soilborne pathogen that causes a wide variety of symptoms because it is a non-specialized pathogen3. Rhizoctonia sensu lato is characterized by the lack of conidiogenous cells and this taxon is composed of two groups based on the number of nuclei per cell: the multinucleate group that belongs to Rhizoctoni...

The soilborne filamentous fungus Trichoderma virens is a biocontrol agent with a well-known ability to produce antibiotics, parasitize pathogenic fungi, and induce systemic resistance in plants. Even though a plant-mediated response has been confirmed as a component of bioprotection by Trichoderma spp., the molecular mechanisms involved remain largely unknown. Here, we report the identification...

Phytophthora capsici is a soilborne oomycete plant pathogen that limits pepper production worldwide. The population structure varies significantly depending on the location (e.g. Peru vs. USA) and little is known about the diversity of P. capsici in Argentina. Our objective was to assess the diversity of P. capsici in Argentina at key pepper production areas. Forty isolates were recovered 2006-...

The ancient soilborne plant vascular pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum has evolved and adapted to cause severe damage in an unusually wide range of plants. In order to better describe and understand these adaptations, strains with very similar lifestyles and host specializations are grouped into ecotypes. We used comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) to investigate three particular ecotypes in ...